GM action makes for sad day for Rome GTO owner

Ron LaBella didn’t know what he was getting into when his father helped him buy a 1964 Pontiac GTO convertible as a high school graduation gift in 1966.

MARTY LYONS

Ron LaBella didn’t know what he was getting into when his father helped him buy a 1964 Pontiac GTO convertible as a high school graduation gift in 1966.

“He said, ‘I found a car for you in Chittenango, go see if you like it,’” said LaBella, a Rome Free Academy alumnus. “Of course, once I saw it, I liked it.”

So did his friends, who asked to borrow the $1,800 muscle car for dates.

That GTO is long gone, sold when married life called for a practical car that could handle snow and ice.

But the flame wasn’t extinguished and in 1988, LaBella bought another 1964 convertible, restoring it with the help of Billy Mathers and Bob Klaisle of Syracuse in Mathers’ shop in Cleveland, on the north shore of Oneida Lake.

The news that General Motors would phase out the Pontiac brand resonated with LaBella because of his longtime emotional connection to the legendary car that inspired the 1964 hit song “GTO” by Ronnie and the Daytonas.

“It’s kind of sad,” he said. “You’d like to see the marquee stay alive.”

LaBella, 61, a computer science professor at Utica College, will continue to do his part to keep the GTO name alive, showing his aquamarine beauty with white top and interior at national and local car shows.

He doesn’t know if the end for Pontiac will increase the value of his car, which he’s had appraised. He declined to share the appraisal, but did say similarly restored cars can run up to $80,000 to $90,000.

However, “it’s not financial,” he said. “It runs well, it looks good. It’s a feeling of nostalgia.”

And his GTO brings him together with Mathers, Klaisle and other classic car owners.